Joseph Quincy Krumgold (April 9, 1908 – July 10, 1980) was an American writer of books and

screenplays ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fea ...

. He was the first person to win two annual

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

s for the most distinguished new American children's book.

Life

Krumgold was born in 1908 in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, and was immersed in the world of movies from a young age: his father, Henry, operated movie theatres. He graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, and worked for

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

as a

scriptwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...

. He later became a maker of documentaries. One production, '' Adventure in the Bronx'', was nominated for the first

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

. He married Helen Litwin in 1947; they had one son, Adam, and lived in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, and

Hope Township, New Jersey Hope Township is a township in Warren County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 1,835, a decrease of 117 (−6.0%) from the 2010 census count of 1,952, which in turn reflected an ...

. He was hired by the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

to make a film about Hispanic workers in rural America. The film was created in 1953, and shares a title with Krumgold's first Newbery Award-winning novel, '' ...And Now Miguel''. Six years later, Krumgold won the Newbery Medal again for '' Onion John'', a story about an eccentric immigrant in small-town

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. It was named to the

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books annually by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" ...

list in 1960. Krumgold traveled extensively throughout the world, living in several places including California, Paris, and Rome. From 1947 to 1951, he lived and worked in Israel making movies that marked the founding of modern-day Israel. He died on July 10, 1980, at the age of 72 at his home in Hope Township.Staff
"Joseph Krumgold, Screenwriter And Author of Children's Books"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', July 16, 1980. Accessed April 29, 2015. "Joseph Krumgold, a screenwriter and author of children's books, died of a stroke July 10 at his home in Hope, N.J. He was 72 years old."

Other works

Although Krumgold is probably remembered most for the two Newbery winners, he also wrote other novels and movie scripts. * ''Seven Miles from Alcatraz'', a 1942 movie * ''Dream No More'', a 1953 movie * ''The Autobiography of a Jeep'', a film produced in 1943 for the

United States Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

* ''Henry 3'', a children's novel published in 1967 * ''The Most Terrible Turk: A Story of Turkey'', a children's novel published in 1969 * ''Sweeney's Adventure'', a children's novel published in 1942 * ''Thanks to Murder'', an adult novel published in 1935 by the

Vanguard Press The Vanguard Press (1926–1988) was a United States publishing house established with a $100,000 grant from the left wing American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund. Throughout the 1920s, Vanguard Press issued an array o ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krumgold, Joseph 1908 births 1980 deaths American male screenwriters American children's writers Jewish American novelists Newbery Medal winners Place of death missing People from Hope Township, New Jersey Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey Novelists from New Jersey Screenwriters from New Jersey 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American Jews New York University alumni American expatriates in Israel